Air cleaner



April 22, 1930. F. A. boNALDsoN AIR CLEANER Filed Oct. 16, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet l w WMQN April 22 1930. F. A. DONALDSON AIR CLEANER Filed Oc-t. 16, 1924 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 flunk aim/dial.

A ril 22, 1930.

AIR CLEANER Filed Oct. 16, 1924 7 EA. DONALDSON 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 i i k i i I Patented Apr. 22, 1930 UNITED, STATES IRANK A. DONALDSON, OF MINNEAJE'OLIS, MINNESOTA AIR CLEANER Application filed October 16, 1924. Serial No. 748,980.

My present invention provides an extremely simple and highly eflicient air cleaner especially ada ted for use to deliver to the carburetors of internal combustion 6 engines clean air, that is, air freed from dust;

of the novel construction, combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and defined in the claims.

I shall first describe several forms of the im roved air cleaner and will'thereafter consi er the nature and the im ortance of various novel features therein involved.

In the accompanying 'drawings, which 5 illustrate the invent1on, like characters. in-

dicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view showing the improved air cleaner. connected to the carburetor of an internal combustion engine, the said carburetor'and engine being indicated diagrammatically;

Fig. 2 1s a transverse vertical section on the lines 2-2 of Figs. 1 and 3;

Fig. 3 is a vertical axial section on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a rear end, elevation of theair cleaner, looking into the air-receiving end thereof;

v Fi 5 is a view corres onding to Fig. 3,

but illustrating a modified" form of the cleaner and showing in diagram a carburetor to which it is connected;

Fig. 6 is an elevation looking into the airreceiving end of the cleaner shown in Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 .is a transverse section on the line 77 of Fig. 5;

Fig. 8 is a transverse section on the line 5 88 of Fig. 5; and

Fig. 9 is a view chiefly in diagram but with some parts in full shaded lines, showing the manner. in .which an air cleaner, such as that illustrated in Fig. 5, ma be connected to a carburetor and to the ex aust pipe of an internal combustion engine.

Figs. 1, 3, 5 and 9 illustrate diagrammatically an internal combustion engine 10, an intake manifold 11, an exhaust manifold 12,

an exhaust pipe 13, and a carburetor 14, the

, generally stated, the invention consists latter connected to the intake inanifold in the usual way, and all of said parts being of the usual or any suitable construction.

Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, illustrate a form of th air cleaner believed. to be of the best design for use in connection with Ford automobiles and for some other purposes, and this construction will be first described.

Preferably, thecasing or body shell of this air cleaner is a thin sheet metal cylinder 15, closed at one end by a head 16 and horizontally disposed,.the same being supported in such position, at least in part, by one of the customary manifold clam s 17, such as found on Ford engines, the said clamp being'arranged to grip and hold flanges 18 secured to and pro ected upward from said casing 15. At its open end, that is, at the end opposite to the head 16, the cylindrical casing 15 is provided with an inset circumferentially spacedseries of spiral vanes or blades 19 that will cause the air drawn into the casing to take up a whirling motion. These vanes 19 are soldered or otherwise rigidly secured .to the casing and, at the axis of the casing, they are overlapped in such a way that, for a considerable area, such as approximately that represented by the dotted circle marked, 3 on Fig. 4, air cannot pass axially on a straight line into the casing.

The interior of the casing 15 is divided by a. suitable partition structure into three chambers, towit: a separating chamber A, a clean air chamber B, and a dust-collecting chamber 0. In the construction here illustrated, the said artition structure comprises a rigid metal dlaphragm 20 that completely s ans the interior of the casing 15 and is provided with an axial or centrally located air port 21 and with an eccentrically located ust port or passage 22. The central air port 21 is preferably in the form of a short sleeve that projects ,into the separating chamber A and directly connects the same to the. clean air chamber B. The clean air chamber B is separated from the dust chamberv C by an oblique partition plate 23. The eccentric dust port 22 is' located at the highest point or near the top of the cylindrical casing 15 and leads directly froin the upper and innermost portion of the separating chamber A into the upper portion of the dust chamber C. A clean air tube 24 is secured to the casin 15 and leads directly downward from the 0 can air chamber B and, as shown, is

sage 15 is formed by pressing an upper por tion of the diaphragm 20 away from the separating chamber A and into the dust chamber C. It should be also noted that the spiral vanes 19 are turned in such a direction that the air taken into the-separating chamber A will be whirled in a clockwise direction in respect to Fig. 4, which is in a counterclockwise direction in respect to Fig. 2, and it will be further noted that the pressed lip that affords the passage 22 is circumferentially beveled or spiraled in the same direction as the vanes 19, so that the dust, on striking the said lip, will pass freely into the dust-collecting chamber 0.

The action of this air cleaner in the form just described, is substantially as follows:

Under the suction produced in the carburetor while the engine is in action, partial vacuum will be maintained in the clean air chamber B and, hence, in the separating chamber A, so that the dust-laden airfrom the exterior will be drawn into the open end of said chamber A and, by the spiral vanes 19, will be caused to take a whirling motion within the separating chamber A. This whirling motion will cause the heavier particles, such as dust, to be thrown against the cylindrical wall of the separating chamber and to take a spiral motion against the diahragm 20, so that the .dust, on reaching the ust ort 22, will be thrown into the dust chain er C. In this action, gravity is not relied upon to separate the dust from the air, but, on the contrary, the separation is made somewhat against the action of gravity and by centrifugal force, which whirls or throws the dust particles outward and through the dust port 22, while the air freed therefrom, being relatively light, will pass through the air port 21 and into the clean air chamber B and from thence to the carburetor. The fact that the port 21 is in a sleeve that projects from the dia hragm 20 into the separating chamber, acilitates the separation of air from dust, for it. with the diaphragm and cylindrical wall of the chamber A, affords a sort of an annular runway in which the dust may whirl until it passes through the ort 22 into the dust-receiving chamber C.

rom the foregoing, many of the advantages of using a cylindrical casing and of placing the same in a horizontal position should be apparent. The arrangement of the partition structure locates the separating chamber, clean air chamber and dust chamber all within the cylindrical casing, and the location of the dust port 22 at the top of the casing makes it possible to utilize the interior of the cylindrical casing as a dust chamber and to nearly or quite fill said dust chamber with dust before it is necessary to clean out the same.

In the modified arrangement illustrated in Figs. 5 to 8, inclusive, the casing is again preferably a horizontally disposed cylindrical casing15 provided at its air-receiving end with spiral vanes orblades 19 of substantially the same arrangement as the blades 19. In this structure, the casing is divided into three chambers, to wit: a separating chamber a, a clean air chamber 6 and a dustreceiving chamber a, by a partition structure made up of an axial tube 28 and an annular partition or diaphragm 29. The air port that connects the chamber a to the chamber 6 is formed by the extreme inner end of the tube 28 and the outer end of said tube is directly connected to the carburetor 14. The dustreceiving port 22, which is like the port 22, is located in the extreme uppermost portion of the partition 29, and the dust chamber 0 is of annular form and completely surrounds the tube 28. At its bottom, said chamber 0 is provided with a cleanout port 30, which, as shown, leads to a short threaded nipple 31 secured to the bottom of the casing 15 and normally closed by a screw-threaded cap 32. Also-,as shown in Figs. 5 and 6, a small cap 3 is applied to the axial portions of the spiral vanes 19, to prevent flow of air into the casing 15, closely adjacent to or surrounding the axis thereof.

The operation of this modified form of the air cleaner illustrated in Figs. 5 to 8, inclusive, is substantially like that of the structure above described andillustrated in Figs, 1 to 4, inclusive, except that the air passes directly rearwardly from the clean air chamber 6 to the carburetor and that the dust in the chamber 0 will accumulate around the axlal tube 28. I

In Fig. 9, I have illustrated an arrangement for connecting the bottom of the dust chamber to the exhaust pipe of the englne, so that, by the action of suction, the dust Wlll be drawn from such chamber; and in this illustration, I have shown the air cleaner illustrated in Figs. 5 ,to 8 with a dust discharge pipe 33 attached to the cap 32 and opening therethrough and having its d scharge end extended into the engine exhaust pipe 13 in such a manner that the force of the exhaust will produce partial, vacuum in the said tube 33 and, hence, in the dust chamher. With such an arrangement, as is evident, dust will not accumulate in the dust chamber a but will be continuously drawn therefrom.

What I claim is:

1. An air cleaner comprising a tubular casing formed with a separating chamber through which the air moves without reversing its direction of travel, said separating chamber at one end having means for causing the incoming air to take a whirling "mo.- tion and provided at its other end with an axial air discharge port of less cross section than said separating chamber, and adust chamber having a port located in the upper portion of said chamber and eccentric to said air outlet port and connecting said separating chamber to said dust chamber.

2. Thestructure defined in claim 1 in which said air outlet port is formed by a sleeve that projects into said separating chamber beyond said dust port.

3. An air cleaner comprising atubular casing set on an approximately horizontal axis and provided at its air intake end with a device causing the incoming air to take up a whirling motion within said casing, an annular partition appliedin said casing and spaced axially back from the air intake end of said casing and having a centrally located air outlet port, said annular partition at its upper portion having a dust port, a suppplemental partition connected to said annular partition at a point below said dust port and above said air outlet port and dividing the rear portion of said casing into a clean air chamber and a dust chamber into which latter said dust port opens, said clean air chamher having an outlet adapted to be connected to a carburetor.

- 4. The structure defined in claim 3 inwhich said annular partition is provided with a sleeve surrounding the air outlet port thereofand projecting toward the air intake end of said casing. I

v 5. The structure defined in claim 3 in which said annular partition is provided with a sleeve surrounding the air outlet port thereof and projecting toward the air intake end of said casing, the said dust chamber having a depending cleanout nipple and a detachable cap normally closing the same. 5

' 6. An air cleaner comprising a casing provided with a partition structure dividing the same into three chambers, to wit: a separating chamber,'a clean air chamber and a dust chamber, said 'separatingchamber having an 1 air inlet opening thereinto from the atmos- .phere,"and provided with a device causing the incoming air to take a whirling motion with in said separating chamber, said partition structure having a centrally located airport and an eccentrically located dust port, said air port connecting said separating chamber to said clean air chamber and said dust port.

connecting said separating chamber to said dust chamber, and said clean air chamber.

having an air outlet combined with means for I producing suction or partial vacuum therein, whereby'dust-laden airwill be drawn from 

